Our Mission

The Achievement Academy of Durham empowers hard-working, at-risk students, who have dropped out of high school, to become productive, successful members of the community through obtaining a North Carolina High School Equivalency Diploma and postsecondary education.

Our year-round daily school provides the education and support necessary for high risk, initially low reading, hard-working students living in poverty to become gainfully employed citizens. We pair formal education with the teaching of personal and leadership skills to turn lives around.

In addition to helping our students earn a NC High School Equivalency Diploma (“GED”), we work with our students through post-secondary education at Durham Technical Community College (DTCC).

Postsecondary education enables our students to climb out of poverty and gain financial stability for themselves and their children.

Since our founding in 2005, we’ve graduated 46 GEDs 1 and are currently supporting 14 of our graduates in postsecondary education. You can help us do even more.

1 Number of GED graduates is current as of 3/07/08.

Josh's Success Story

Josh tells his own story: “February 2008 marked a year since I became a student at the Achievement Academy. When I first started at the Achievement Academy I was 16 and my reading was at a sixth grade level. The last grade I passed in public school was eighth. Reading was the first subject test I needed to work on. I had to bring my level up to at least a tenth grade to even be able to begin studying for GED tests. So, I read and read more! I read many books: at night, at school, and in my spare time to practice reading and getting the main idea. First I found myself beginning to read at a faster pace. Then I found myself answering questions about a passage correctly. Even though it took me almost a year of very hard work, I did not give up. I passed the GED Reading test and last month I tested at a 12.7 grade reading level. In other words I now read at college level!
I am proud of myself; I worked hard to get to the appropriate reading level so I can move forward in life

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